Swedish roundup: AP fund board changes, AP1

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SWEDEN - Four of the Swedish AP pension funds have reported changes to their boards, while AP1 is seeking a new custodian.

From June 1, AP7, one of the Swedish buffer funds will have several changes to its board. Tommy Persson is stepping down from his role as chairman of the board of. He was appointed in May 2008.

Recently questions have been raised about Persson's invovement in Kaupthing Bank, the Icelandic bank, where he was a member of the board. However, Persson's departure from AP7 is believed to be unrelated. Other members stepping down are Lars Linder-Aronsson and Reinhold Geijer. Persson's replacement will be Per Olof Edin wheras the others will not be replaced. The board will consist of, apart from Edin, Cecilia Ardström. Lena Hagman, Robert Stenram, Karin Moberg and Christina Striby.

At AP4, Ilmar Reeplu, a local authority councillor in Malmö, is stepping down as a board member. He has been on the board since 2000.

The Swedish government, who selects the board members for all the AP funds, has expressed a wish to replace members after 10 years of service. The government has asked the local and regional authority association, SKL, to nominate a replacement. Separately, Jakob Ginbaum, for deputy CEO and head of Group Treasurey at Nordea has been selected to join the AP4 board.

At AP2, Marie S Arwidson is stepping into the role as chairman. She is the head of Skogsindustrierna, the Swedish Forest Industries Association.

Jeanette Hauff has also joined the AP2 board. She is works at Gothenburg School of Economics and Commercial Law as well as at Skandia.

AP1, one of the Swedish buffer funds, is reviewing its global custody arrangements including all related services. The fund currently uses the services of Bank of New York Mellon, which is welcome to join the tender process, according to a spokesman of the fund.

The fund is looking for an applicant that can offer requested services with a high degree of straight through processing, high service quality and competitive pricing. Deadline for receipt of tenders is 30 June and invitations to participate are expected to go out on 15 July.

The SEK202.3bn (€20.9bn) fund is looking for a provider with a long-term rating exceeding A/A1 by Standard & Poors and/or Moody's and/or IBCA. The market value of assets under custody must exceed $1trn and the provider must have a European-based operations centre.

The coverage or sub-custodian networks must include all markets included in the MSCI All Country World Indices and most markets in the MSCI Frontier Markets Index. AP1 also requires online access to the provider's custody system and related services including information regarding the ethical and environmental policies of the applicant.

The global custody services will include settlement and custody of securities plus record keeping where relevant, assets servicing and taxation support. AP1 may also ask for designated, segregated accounts on relevant markets. The related services will include fund accounting, trade matching, CLS-facilities and compliance monitoring. They may also include securities lending, performance measurement, risk analytics and support for private equity.

These stories were first published by Pensionsnyheterna, a Swedish-language specialist news service, and translated in agreement with IPE.com